Here We Go Again…

More service cuts to public transit may be coming to Silicon Valley. The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority (VTA) will discuss a proposal to further reduce bus and light rail service at its first Board Of Directors’ meeting of 2019 this Thursday at 5:30pm in San Jose.

WHEN: Thursday, January 10 at 5:30pmWHERE: Auditorium at VTA Headquarters, 3331 N. First Street, San JoseGETTING THERE: Take VTA Light Rail to the River Oaks station. VTA’s headquarters is on the west (airport) side of N. First Street, in the back of the Park and Ride lot.

Tips for how to be heard at any VTA Board meeting or workshop can be mastered here.

Our group has obtained details on what the VTA Board Of Directors will discuss at Thursday evening’s meeting. Details are below.

Below are additional, specific details on bus and light rail service VTA proposes to reduce or eliminate.

The proposed service plan includes 61 reductions in service as compared to the original Next Network plan. All the reductions are to coverage service (to limit ridership impacts). Each change in service is detailed below.

Purple Line (Almaden)
1. Discontinue Purple Line rail service (Almaden spur)
2. Replace Purple Line rail service with a new bus route that will stop at all three stations (Ohlone/Chynoweth, Oakridge, Almaden) at 30-minute frequency, on the same days and generally the same hours as the Purple Line

Blue Line (Alum Rock – Santa Teresa)
3. Shorten to end at Baypointe Station instead of Alum Rock Station; stations east of Baypointe would be served by the Orange Line (Mountain View –Alum Rock)
All Light Rail Lines
4. Change weekend frequency to every 20 minutes on all lines (to provide better connections with BART’s 20-minute weekend train frequency)

Route 27 (Winchester Station – Kaiser San Jose)
10. Start weekday service at 6:00 AM instead of 5:30 AM
111. End weekday service at 9:00 PM instead of 10:00 PM
12. Reduce Saturday frequency to every 40 minutes from every 30 minutes
13. End Saturday service at 8:00 PM instead of 9:00 PM
14. End Sunday service at 7:30 PM instead of 8:00 PM

Proposed Service Improvements

Since the proposed plan aims to achieve a 90/10 ridership/coverage balance as compared to the original Next Network plan’s 83/17 balance, the proposal also includes additional investments in the Frequent Network, VTA’s ridership-oriented network of frequent routes that are designed for serving and attracting high ridership. The proposed service plan includes 6 improvements to routes in the Frequent Network as compared to the original Next Network plan. Each improvement is detailed below.

Route 26 (West Valley College – Eastridge)
3. Improve weekday service frequency between Curtner Station and Westgate to every 15 minutes from 30, extending the all-day Frequent segment of the route west beyond Curtner Station.
4. Improve weekend service frequency between Curtner Station and Westgate to every 20 minutes from every 30

Route 68 (San Jose Diridon Station – Gilroy Transit Center)
5. Improve weekday midday service frequency between Santa Teresa Station and Gilroy to every 15 minutes from 30, which would make the entire route from San Jose to Gilroy frequent all day

Additional Analysis of VTA’s Proposal

By my calculation, Next Network would have reduced VTA’s PM peak bus deployment from (estimated) 315 to 290. If further service cuts are needed (as I assume) based on the Next Network, then the proposed 90/10 would probably be implemented removing another 15-20 peak vehicles from PM service.

Since El Camino [Real] BRT is being postponed, I would assume the frequency would match that of Line 22. Remember, April, 2017, Line 22 experienced a frequency change from 12 minute to 15 minute frequencies, while Line 522 experienced 15 minute to 12 minute frequencies. From looking at the current day (2.16.18 SSTPO Meeting), Line 22 still performs over Line 522. As a result, Line 22 has experienced a slight decrease in ridership, as the same as it’s overlay 522.

The Next Network only focused on ‘core’ routes, and that could be the possible direction? Without connecting local routes to connect with the core, it is a spell for disaster.

Some Talking Points

Jim Stallman of Saratoga provided these talking points as well:

VTA will claim that they are maintaining the same number of service hours with the 90/10 coverage/ridership even though they are wanting to lay off or force into early retirement a sizable number of drivers. Trickery here?

VTA is ripping out service to all of the affluent portions of the county which means that the disadvantaged will no longer have access to the domestic and retail jobs in those areas or their respective Community Colleges. Loss of transit will also bring into question why taxpayers are not being provided the transit they pay for.

Implementing #2 is likely a diabolically criminal attempt to skirt the housing zoning rule just adopted by MTC. Affluent suburbs of the county can now claim that they have no transit lines so they aren’t subject to higher density involuntary zoning changes.

Proposal Timeline

According to VTA, authority staff will conduct public outreach and collect public input from now until the end of February. Based on public input, VTA staff will present a revised plan to committees in April. Based on the input from the committees, the VTA Board Of Directors will vote on the final plan in May. The goal of this ensures the changes take effect on the first day of BART service into Milpitas and Berryessa this Fall.